This was a great way to end our 10.5 week road trip. We love Grand Tetons, and especially Gros Ventre. It is a little harder for us to camp here- no power and no generators- but most of the sites have enough sun for us to run off solar power. And it is beautiful with access to the Gros Ventre River and wonderful moose habitat!
It was substantially warmer in Gros Ventre than Bridge Bay campground, which was very nice. It was comfortable without being overly hot. We did hike a bit and the afternoons got a little warm, but it stayed cool overnight. Sleeping was quite pleasant. It was still too early in the year, for the most part, to see moose calves but we did end up seeing one cow and calf. We saw several bull moose, and several bears. We even saw famous Grizzly 399 and her cub Spirit for almost a half hour. As we drove into Grand Teton from Yellowstone we got into a Grizzly jam with a sow and 3 little cubs. We saw Bear at least three more times during our 6 days here!
Like Yellowstone NP, Tetons requires a fair amount of driving, especially if you are “chasing” animal sightings! One of our favorite drives is along Rockefeller Drive towards the Laurence Rockefeller preserve. We like driving up to Colter Bay along Oxbow Bend. There were a lot more people every day while we were here, mostly likely because school has gotten out for the summer in most parts of the country. We had excellent pizza at the Coulter Bay Lodge Grill- I’d been craving pizza and it was good. Usually we just pack a lunch because there are so many areas to pull over and get some beautiful scenery along Jackson Lake or Jenny Lake. We did an interesting hike to String Lake- a little hilly and rocky- but OK and very pretty. There are all levels of hiking here.
It is hard to explain how relaxing and simply amazing Grand Tetons NP really is. Animals are not hard to find, decent villages for food, laundry and showers, not too crowded (but busy), and scenery like nowhere else. There are lots of relatively easy hikes and the Jenny Lake visitors area is great. We took a ferry/boat across Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls and hiked back to the visitor area. Just lots to do including doing not much. Love this place!
